Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Kirk Lowery <Kirk AT GrovesCenter.org>]

Philip,

Sorry for the delayed response. Here is my take on things:

Translation: "My son Solomon -- God has chosen him alone (echad) -- is
young and inexperienced." [echad understood as a noun functioning as an
adverb] The majority of English translations more or less follow this
analysis.

A more "literal" translation might be: "My son Solomon -- one (only) has
God chosen in him -- is young and inexperienced." [echad is the object
of the verb; BOW 'in him' is now interpreted as a simple prepositional
phrase]

I prefer the second analysis.

The entire phrase from echad to elohim is an imbedded clause. It is a
thought which has been interjected into a nominal (verbless) clause.
There is no relative pronoun or function. Yes, English syntax might
require a relative pronoun and some translations do this, but I think
the translation above better reflects what the Hebrew is doing.

I offer my own take on the syntax analysis of this embedded clause:

http://www.grovescenter.org/public/1c29-1-3.png

Hope this helps.

Blessings,

Kirk
--
Kirk E. Lowery, PhD
President & Senior Research Fellow
The J. Alan Groves Center for Advanced Biblical Research
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